Mechanical Engineering

When corporate recruiters grill college placement directors about how they
can entice graduating students to their companies, you know it's a
seller's marketsellers in this case being mechanical engineering students.
They're a hot item for employers in industries that encompass the spectrum of
American economy: computers, to medicine to heavy manufacturing. John A. Tichy,
chair of the Mechanical/Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics Department at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) reports a booming market for his
graduating engineers. Employers have good reason to want to know what attracts
entry-level MEs. RPI seniors are taking their time deciding between offers.
Having seen layoffs and downsizings occur, they are somewhat cynical about the
job market and realize their first job is a launching pad to many future
employers.

They've got plenty to choose from notes Robert Benson, professor and head of
Penn State's Mechanical Engineering Department. He predicts the same excellent
job outlook for his graduating engineers, "Employers are a stupendous presence
on this campus." In response to a thriving economy, companies that were on the
lean side a few years ago now demand the new insights and fresh blood that
current entry-levels bring.

Hiring Trends

The computational skills that mechanical engineers have are a big drawing
card for traditional employers in the automotives, aerospace and manufacturing
category as well as nontraditional companies such as consulting and software
firms. Tichy points out the high demand software companies have for MEs who know
the design end of mechanical engineering but also speak the language of
software. In his opinion the increase in consulting firm recruitment came about
because research, the first to go in downsizing, was farmed out to consulting
companies and there it remains.

Tichy notes a greater number of companies are nabbing only a few engineers,
rather than only a few mega firms sweeping up a third of RPI's entire crop of
mechanicals as has been the case in the past. He says this is the result of huge
corporate giants breaking up into smaller components, each with their own
recruitment needs. Yet another attractive source of jobs for entry-levels are
start-ups and the many small, relatively unknown companies flooding campuses
these days. Though RPI doesn't keep track of the number of students going to
smaller firms in the conventional survey its career office puts out, Tichy has
noticed a growing number of his students opting to work for the nonbrand-name
employers. For example, interesting jobs are to be found in the entrepreneurial
ventures that many professors have started or new ventures found in local
technology parks, many of which are located around universities.

Some emerging employers, which, though not likely to become big employers of
mechanical engineering graduates, offer some interesting possibilities.
Bioengineering is one of them. "It may never be a huge field compared to GM or
Ford," says Benson, "but it is growing from a small base." He cites agricultural
and food manufacturing firms as an overlooked market filled with many options
that occur because of the exotic materials and sophisticated machinery used in
these fields. The explosion of advanced materials science has opened lots of
interesting doors for this year's mechanical engineers according to Benson. "Any
time you remove a limitation, you open up a new arena of design. Any new
material advance changes the ground rules. There are lots of competitive reasons
to pay attention to this," he observes.

The development of mechatronics, a Japanese-coined word that describes the
use of electronics to control machines, also impacts the job market for
mechanicals. Benson, whose own work includes research into magnetic recording
drives with sophisticated electronic controls, is optimistic about the job
prospects for students who are familiar with this technology. Tichy puts his own
spin on the effect of mechatronics on employment. "It's a new technology applied
to current business, rather than new businesses being established," he comments.
Some of the areas where mechatronics is being applied are testing and
trouble-shooting in aerospace and automotives. Benson sees further applications
arising in artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning, which, he
says, are hybrids of mechatronics.

Mechanical graduates are ahead of the game if they have the soft skills
employers talk up nowadays. Managers want new employees to hit the ground
running in leadership, teamwork and communication skills. While in school, Tichy
points out, "It's every person for themselves in a one-on-one competition." In
the workplace, employees are not in competition with each other but have to work
together to get the product out the door. Those mechanical students who
understand this from the get-go will go a lot further.